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Kelowna Cyclists ready for Bike to Work Week
Cyclists ready to roll in the spirit of Bike to Work Week
By Jennifer Smith - Kelowna Capital News
Published: April 21, 2009 10:00 PM
Updated: April 22, 2009 12:58 PM
Earth Day is the perfect day to start planning for Bike to Work Week, according to the City of Kelowna employees working on the campaign.
On Monday, 70 Bike to Work Week team leaders met for the first time this year to hear about all the changes underway for the annual commuting challenge that asks employees, students and now church parishioners to get out of the car and choose an environmentally friendly mode of transportation.
“Guilt works,” city transportation demand supervisor Jerry Dombowsky joked as he explained how he motivates co-workers to ride to work as part of his transportation department team.
During Bike to Work Week employers are asked to register their business, organization or society at www.i-go.ca and keep track of the kilometres their corporate team rides, walks or rolls to work on their roller blades, rather than taking their cars.
Registered teams compete for prizes and every team also receives a prize pack of gifts their team leaders can hand out as incentives within the workplace.
This is the first year the entire province will be working on the initiative at the same time and the Central Okanagan is making its mark on he event, beginning with helping other groups bump their dates up from their usual June start times. “May is the month to do it in the Okanagan and really, in Central B.C.,” said Wendy Majewski, Bike to Work Week co-ordinator.
“We thought (in)June, you loose a lot of potential cyclists.”
In addition to Bike to Work Week, the entire province will also be hosting Bike to School Week and the Central Okanagan has added its own, unique, twist with Bike to Worship Week, held during the same week.
Inspired by pastor Terry Dyck at Mission Creek Alliance Church, who took the “get creative” message he heard during the team leaders’ workshop to heart and started asking parishion
ers to ride to church during the event a few years back, the new campaign targets members of every faith and spirituality.
Bike to Work Week, and all the initiatives it incorporates, is now a registered society in B.C., allowing municipalities and city-based, volunteer run cycling coalitions to easily work together.
This year, the campaign received a $250,000 grant from the B.C. Ministry of Transportation. The money is used for promotional efforts and to help with events like the Bike Rodeos, which teach kids about riding safety and cycling workshops for adults who may want to upgrade their skills before hitting the roads.
Information on every aspect of the multifaceted campaign can be found at www.i-go.ca and, for those interested in calculating the emissions they save the environment, the Hub for Action on School Transportation Emissions ) website has an emissions calculator (www.hastebc.org/mytravel-calculator.
Notes on the benefits of cycling listed on the i-go website suggest it takes 130 trees to produce the amount of oxygen needed to combat the carbon dioxide emitted from one car each year and the average commuter could save $8,377 simply by riding, rather than driving to work year-round.
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